THERE’S OFTEN LITTLE surprises when a Leinster team announcement arrives in the inbox. 

The province have a squad bursting with talent and with that comes opportunites to experiment with the system, moving various pieces around in the search to try exciting new combinations.

For today’s home game against the Ospreys [KO 5pm, RTÉ/Premier Sports/URC TV], the main source of intrigue comes in the form of Harry Byrne – a man touted for the Ireland 10 shirt down the line – lining out at inside centre.

The 22-year-old moved into that position last week when the province lost Ciarán Frawley to an early injury against Edinburgh, but this will be his first time starting a game for Leinster with the 12 on his back.

With Harry at centre, older brother Ross starts at out-half. It’s an interesting dynamic to have those two players on the pitch at the same time, and in those respective positions. A year ago Leinster were trialling Ross in midfield, handing him a pair of starts at outside centre and inside centre.

They haven’t revisited that particular experiment, so it will be interesting to see if Harry’s relocation develops into something long-term. 

“We were curious to see… Ciarán (Frawley) was very unlucky last week, so again it was a player goes down and another steps in and Harry came on 20 minutes into the game,” head coach Leo Cullen explains.

I thought he acquitted himself well. Him and Ross have an excellent relationship, clearly, a good understanding of what they’re trying to do, having that second ball-player is something we value and place importance on. So this week is another opportunity to see that. We’ll see how it goes.

“There’s some good options for us in-game in terms of if we want to make any change-ups there as well, Rory O’Loughlin is on the bench and James Lowe as well, so there is potential for them to come in at different stages.

“We’ll see how the early part of the game plays out but there’s a few different scenarios that we’ve discussed here.”

Leinster like to spread the play-making responsibility around, so the younger Byrne could well pop up in the sort of spaces we’ve seen him occupy as an out-half anyway.

“There are some slight differences,” Cullen continues.

Ross and Harry Byrne link up against Edinburgh last week. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

“With Jamie (Osborne) there as a young player as well, in terms of what Harry brings is he gives great communication to Ross and the way the game is, to have that communication is so, so important.

“Having somebody else’s ability to see space is important because it adds a little bit more deception for the defence, to have that second ball player.

“Having that constant communication to a 10 so it’s not just solely reliant on him to see where all the space is to be able to attack… 

All the time you’re trying to get that balance across the team between your kicking game, your ball-playing ability but also with getting that power into the game and then even in the back three, that balance between speed and speed endurance.

“So we can play around with all those different combinations and we see that on a regular basis in training, so it’s good to be able to, we hope, see some of this come together on game day then.”

Given the URC has taken a short break during the opening rounds of the Six Nations, it’s worth reminding that Leinster currently sit second in the league table, with today’s game an opportunity to leapfrog ahead of Ulster, who play the Dragons on Sunday.

Cullen welcomes back Ireland internationals Cian Healy, Ryan Baird and Jordan Larmour, with James Lowe poised to make his return from injury off the bench. That’s a lot of players looking to catch the eye.

Ospreys boss Toby Booth summed it up pretty well yesterday, even allowing for those little tweaks within the Leinster team  – “You play Leinster, and you know what you are going to get.”

Leinster: Jimmy O’Brien; Jordan Larmour, Jamie Osborne, Harry Byrne, Dave Kearney; Ross Byrne, Luke McGrath (captain); Cian Healy, James Tracy, Michael Ala’alatoa; Ross Molony, Ryan Baird; Martin Moloney, Scott Penny, Max Deegan.